Dalai Lama Says Successor Could Be A Woman

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CHINA: Buddhist Monks Will Need Government Permission to Reincarnate

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Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama suggested that his successor could be a woman. "If a woman reveals herself as more useful the lama could very well be reincarnated in this form" the 14th Dalai Lama told reporters in Milan where he arrived for a private visit.

The 72-year-old Dalai Lama who has lived in exile since 1959 said last week that his successor could be chosen outseide of Tibet if he were to die abroad. He also m ooted that possibilities of choosing the 15th Dalai Lama himself.

According to centuries of traditioin high-ranking monks in Tibet choose the Dalai Lama's reincarnation after the death of the incumbent. China, which has ruled Tibet since 1951 has violently crushed prtests there, recently announced that so-called living Buddhas iun Tibet needed permission fropm the government, officially atheist, to be reincarnated.

The Buddhist leader also said his 11-day visit to Italy was "not political" abd tahgt he did not intent to cause problems for the state and the (Italian) authorities."

Source-AFP, Milan